Matt Bush, FISM News
Dominick Black, the man charged with buying Kyle Rittenhouse the gun used in the Kenosha shootings, has taken a plea deal as a means to avoid any possible jail time. He agreed to plead “no contest” to contributing to the delinquency of a minor thus avoiding possible conviction of two felony charges stemming from the two deaths in the Kenosha shootings.
The judge in the case, Bruce Schroeder, could reject the plea deal or even dismiss the original felony charges, according to U.S. News and World Report, “based on his ruling about the minors-with-firearms law in the Rittenhouse case.” His ruling will come later this morning.
At the time of the events in Kenosha, Rittenhouse was just 17, too young to purchase a gun in the state of Wisconsin. Dominick Black said he made the purchase for him so that he could protect himself in the midst of the riots going on at the time.
Black, who was 18 at the time of the purchase of the AR-15, was charged in November 2020 and pled “not guilty” to the charges in May 2021. The two counts brought against him are related to the deaths of Joseph Rosenbaum and Anthony Huber, deaths in which Kyle Rittenhouse was cleared of any wrongdoing in November 2021 when he was found not guilty on the five counts brought against him.
Black was initially charged with “intentionally selling a dangerous weapon to a person under the age of 18,” but that charge was put in jeopardy when the judge in Rittenhouse’s case “agreed to throw out one of the charges against Rittenhouse — that he unlawfully possessed a firearm as a minor.”
This led many to question how Dominick Black could face charges of “intentionally selling a dangerous weapon to a minor” if Kyle Rittenhouse did not “unlawfully possess a firearm as a minor.” It is important to note that Judge Bruce Schroeder was also the judge who presided over the Rittenhouse trial.
Black was the first witness used by the prosecution against Rittenhouse in the initial trial. He was dating Rittenhouse’s sister at the time, and the two were together the night of the shootings. According to CNN, in Black’s testimony, “[Rittenhouse] said he had to do it, it was self-defense, people were trying to hurt him.”
On Friday, District Attorney Thomas Binger filed a proposed plea deal agreement. The deal states that Black would plead no contest to the reduced charge of “contributing to the delinquency of a minor” and would pay a $2,000 fine. Under this scenario, the felonies would be dismissed, and the fine would be considered a “non-criminal citation.”